Beautiful Submission

22Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Eph 5: 22-24

¹Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, ²when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. ³Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. ⁴Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. ⁵For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful. They were submissive to their own husbands, ⁶like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her master. 1 Pet 3:1-6

After writing about headship, I must write about its counterpart – submission. They really are two sides of the same coin. The above text reads that wife is to submit to their husband, the same way the Church is to submit to the Christ. This incidentally sets the pattern for the submission of wife. How extensive is this submission? In everything. How powerful is the submission of a wife? As powerful as converting the soul of a rebellious husband! (1 Pet3:1). It is really the silent gospel!

In the same way that headship of a husband is not an option, submission of a wife is also not an option as well. A wife cannot make submission disappear by just being disobedient. If she is not in submission to her husband, she will then be submissive to  others, who may not have her interest at heart.

The world frowns upon this word and regards the idea of wife submitting to their husband as archaic, repressive and obnoxious. But the question to ask is; how does God view submission? Well, firstly it is beautiful (1 Pet 3:3) and secondly, it is of great worth and value. (1 Pet 3:4)

Marriage – The Great Mystery

³¹“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”^{[c] 32}This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.³³However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. Eph 5:31-33

The bible describes the union of a man and a woman as a great, profound mystery. In what sense is it a great mystery? In the sense that every marriage is imaging the relationship between Christ and the Church.

What am I saying?

In Scritpture, Christ is known as the Groom and the Church the Bride. The great marriage feast shall be on the day when Christ will return for His Bride. The relationship between this Groom and Bride is one of love and respect. (Eph 5:22-29)

Since our marriage is a tiny picture of that great Relationship, the thing to ask of us is what kind of message is it conveying? Depending on how we treat our wive and how our wive respond to us;

1) It can proclaim the truth about Christ and the Church rightly as stated above if there is love and submission

or

2) It can speak the lies  of that Relationship if we treat each other shabbily

The only option our marriage does not have is to maintain silence.

Marriage – A Mansion with no exits!

“You have heard the law that says, ‘A man can divorce his wife by merely giving her a written notice of divorce.’^[a] 32 But I say that a man who divorces his wife, unless she has been unfaithful, causes her to commit adultery. And anyone who marries a divorced woman also commits adultery. ” Matt 5:31-32

“The Lord God of Israel says that He hates divorce, for it covers one’s garment with violence.” Mal. 2:16

Someone once describes wedding as a wonderful doorway to a grand mansion which we call marriage. Some couples spent so much money creating the most grandeur doorway but ended up with a really dilapidated mansion. On the other end, some couples have a less than decent doorway but the mansion in which the doorway lead to is strong and beautiful.

Regardless of the price tag of the doorway, once you enter this mansion, you find that there are virtually no exits!

So we would do well if we bear the following words,” Before marriage, we need to keep our eyes open. After marriage, we need to keep them shut.”

As one puritan says,” First we choose our love, then we love our choice.”

Eternity on our Eyeballs!

My wife was up in Malaysia last week and I started listening to the church camp sermon in the car. I am usually hooked on the radio for traffic alert so that I can try to avert the ‘disastrous’ route in order to send her to her work place on time. However, this week afforded me some luxury.

The sermon was on ‘Do not accumulate” and I played it again and again until I have lost count how many times I have played it. Pastor David Cook is certainly one who has been well schooled to bring us such solemn warning and solid biblical teaching. It certainly came as a fitting reminder to myself, especially in this climate of seeming affluence and plenty. What with the bull running all over the markets,  rosy economy statistics, red hot real estate activity, enviable graduate job entry level pay….Our MM says that we are entering into a period of golden age.

For those who has missed out or has forgotten, I strongly encourage you to tune in to the church website www.arpc.net for a nice awakening set amidst this era of hard core consumerism and materialism.

The phrase that keeps replaying in my head is” Money is a good servant but a rotten Master, convert earthly wealth into heavenly currencies!”

For those who knew me better, it has always been my desire to be an entrepreneur.  How to balance this teaching against the entrepreneurial code of self absorption and exertion in building up the venture, much wisdom and prayerful seeking are required. My brethren, pray with me that this earthly endearvour shall not obstruct my heavenly vision.

In an era of dazzling wealth, profounce affluence and breathtaking working and family pace, we as christians can often be blinded and numbed to spiritual realities and our christian duties.

Let our prayers ever be as with Jonathan Edwards, the greatest christian philosopher who ever walked in New England “O Lord, Stamp Eternity on my eyeballs!”

Fighting Giants

I was recently reading on Deuteronomy in preparation for what I thought was the next series to be studied in our church sermon series. I think I was mistaken. Nevertheless, the book of Deuteronomy is a book rich in God’s teaching and I must say I am greatly encouraged by the sharing of Pastor Wilson in his blog blog and mablog exposition. As he aptly commented that oftentimes we may have forgotten who are the enemies that God wants the Israelites to chase out of the land of Canaan, no thanks to the children bible stories book portrayal.

The land of Canaan is really a land full of giants as he wrote in his blog. Pore through the entire chapter 2. See the various Giants with different names and dwellings. Note the way scripture narrates how Israel cousins such as the  Edomites. Ammonites and the Moabites drove some of these Giants out of the land in order to occupy the land God gave them.

Observe especially Israel unbelief with her God’s help and command in contrast to her cousin victories over the Giants. If these people whose God is not their Lord can do it, why is Israel doubting Jehovah who possesses the world and all its fulness?

This also brought into particular focus later battles with giants such as the story of puny David overcoming a 2.4m tall giant named Goliath and  the greatest Battle of them all: “the binding of the strong man by Jesus our Lord at the cross”.

My brethren, the world in which God called us to live in may also be one full of Giants. Perhaps it may not be in the physical sense. It can be those problems or challenges that we think are too strong for us. Take heart and be encouraged!

Unbelief will say the giants are too strong for us as the Israelites did in Deuteronomy. Faith will  say that the giants are too big to be missed (in the words of Pastor Wilson)

Our God is a God who delights in fighting giants and makes a spectator of them. Trust your God and Be Thou do likewise! Amen 

Good Bye The Ngs, Welcome Anyone?

 

 For those of the DG members who may yet be aware, Yak Chow and his family will be saying goodbye to this little sleepy town of Sembawang perhaps by the time you have read this post. They have shifted in deference to their daughter’s educational needs. It is indeed hearty to know how they have uprooted for the sake of their daughter’s godly training. Let’s all pray that they will continue to persevere in walking faithfully with the Lord and His people even in their new place. And do not forget to pray also that Chenxi can be given a place in the school of their choice. Be it public worship or private worship, we may be encouraged by their progress in the faith. To the Ng’s family, it was good to have you as our town folks!

 

As the Ngs have encouraged our communal lives, maybe it is a good for us all to pray that the Lord will be pleased to bring others into our midst that we may encourage. And as this process of encouraging others and being encouraged continues, may the Lord be glorified!

 

If any of you is staying up in the North part of the island and thinking of finding out more of the Lord we love and serve, do contact me. We gather in one of the member house every Friday night 8.30pm. We will be delighted that you can grace our gathering with your presence.

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